The Internet(TM) is profoundly>changing our attitude to the creation and presentation of our Art(*)>are optimistic, to say the least. It will happen eventually; but>people tend to vastly over-rate short-term changes and under-estimate>long-term ones. The long-term changes will be profound, moreso than I>can predict at least.>

You're right, of course. I have a concern that the internet will only
become ubiquitous after it has been so commercialized that it is no longer
available to alternative voices.

>>> Increasing support by academia for emering digital technologies can only>> help make them more widespread, too.>>Mmm. I hate to be a real stick-in-the-mud here. I really do. I'm not>just trying to cause trouble, honestly. But I'm trying to think of>cases where academic support of technology has really had a huge>impact on its wider availability and acceptance.

I'm not suggesting that academia provides good access to technological
tools for a wide group of users. I'm just saying that, through a
combination of students who have actually been through these programs, and
through support of workshops, public events, and other cultural activity,
academia does help provide a mechanism for increasing use of new
technologies. You're also right, though, to suggest that these
technologies (look at MIDI as a prime example) don't become widely used
until they are commercialized. Access to the tools may be the job of the
marketplace, but access to the intelligent use of them may through a wide
variety of non-market support mechanisms, including academia. The bottom
line is that there are in increasing number of young artists who have been
through college coming out with sophisticated senses of and uses for new
technology, and this in the end must affect the community as a whole. I
think this is more true in Europe (ironically) than it is in the US.